Nashville’s 7-mile “Amp” BRT was envisioned as the beginning of a more connected transit network and less car dependent city. Image: AMP Yes

The project, known as the Amp, called for a 7-mile busway linking growing East Nashville to downtown and parts of the city’s west end. Civic leaders hoped it would be the first of many high-capacity bus routes that would help make the growing city more attractive and competitive.

But Mayor Karl Dean, facing organized opposition to the project, announced late last year that he would not try to start building the Amp before he leaves office later in 2015. This week the city’s leading transit official made it official and stopped design work on the Amp, The Tennessean reports.

The opposition group “Stop Amp” was led by local car dealership impresario Lee Beaman and limousine company owner Rick Williams, according to the Tennessean. The group also had help from the Koch brothers, with the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity introducing a bill in the State Senate that would have outlawed dedicated transit lanes throughout Tennessee. Opponents fell short of that, but Republicans in the legislature were a constant obstacle to the project’s funding.

Transit supporters in Nashville are now left to pick up the pieces and figure out what comes next. “We’ve never come so far in bringing this level of mass transit to Nashville, and we have to continue the conversation to make it a reality,” Dean said in a statement last week.

It must be incredibly frustrating to these people that outside business interests in the form of the Koch brothers, have been able to buy their way into local politics and ensure the city maintains an unsustainable trajectory.

I’ve said umpteen times that there are “interests” out there who want to insure that transit be as unattractive as possible, otherwise folks won’t aspire to a car-centric life. That the opposition to AMP was driven by a car dealer and limo service, just illustrates my point.

“Even though we aren’t moving forward with the Amp, we will move forward with our strategic planning efforts and engage in extensive dialogue with residents to gain their input on transit solutions for our community,” he added. “We will continue to focus on this corridor as well as others in the region.”

Angie, when are you gonna wake up? I could have told you five years ago that would happen. It’s not the United States of San Francisco where everyone runs around on bikes trying to save the world with someone else’s money. Haven’t you figured that out by now?

If I had a nickle for every time I’ve heard “this isn’t x”, in reference to a city. The ignorance is yours in believing that things can’t change. There are literally dozens, of cities maybe hundreds if you count smaller towns across North America that are actively choosing to change their direction, to improve future prospects. Refusing change because your city isn’t CURRENTLY “San Francisco” is really just burying your head in the sand.

I’m glad Nashville doesn’t have to get a socialist moslem Kenyan transit system! Global warming isn’t real – it was cold the other day. Also, science is just a theory, hippies! Get a job or go back to Burning Man.

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Annie Weinstock is the regional director for the U.S. and Africa at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Last week saw the quiet death of the misguided, Koch brothers-funded Tennessee Senate Bill 2243, which would have effectively banned real bus rapid transit in Tennessee. The Senate’s outrageous overreach, attempting to prohibit transit from using dedicated […]

UPDATE: Though none of the coverage we saw mentioned it, the final law includes an amendment to ban all dedicated transit lanes — not just in the center — “on any state highway or state highway right-of-way unless the project to do so is approved by the legislative body of the metropolitan government and by […]

Nashville, Tennessee, is trying to take its transit to the next level. That ambition is most apparent in “the Amp,” a proposed 7-mile bus rapid transit route linking East Nashville with downtown and parts of the city’s West End. The project — which is entering the final design phases — would be built to a […]

On Tuesday, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean announced that he might do away with dedicated transit lanes on two stretches of the Amp, the proposed seven-mile bus rapid transit line that could set an important precedent for the car-centric city. Dean is the main political backer of the project, so the fact that he’s buckling says […]

Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political network to strong-arm local transportation policy makers. But it was far from […]

sustained Koch Brothers-funded attack. Since then, the city has elected a new mayor and decided on a new vision for transit. Yesterday, Mayor Megan Barry said a light rail line would be the first project funded under her plan, which is likely to go before voters next year. While that moves forward, there is a lot Nashville can do in the meantime to improve its lackluster bus network.